


Patty Cake

by crocodilepatronus



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-21
Updated: 2017-02-21
Packaged: 2018-09-26 00:20:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,180
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9853424
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/crocodilepatronus/pseuds/crocodilepatronus
Summary: Jughead and Archie play patty cake on a Saturday morning.





	

“I don’t want to sound gender conformist or anything by asking this but… where did you learn this?”

 

It was 11 a.m. on a Saturday and Jughead’s hands (pale, slightly sweaty) were being cradled by Archie’s (large, considerably more dry, warm as sunlight).

 

And then Archie took Jughead’s left hand, guided it up to slap his own right hand, let go temporarily, so that he could use his left hand to maneuver under their outstretched arms and slap Jughead’s right hand….

 

“I told you. When I was seven years old I spent all my time with Betty. It was all patty-cake games all day. Nothing else to do.” Archie explained calmly, not missing a beat as he slapped the palms of his hands against Jughead’s, never missing a beat as Jughead fumbled and struggled to keep up with the rhythm.

 

They were sitting cross legged across from each other on the grass behind Archie’s house and it was either a testament to the boredom of small town life or to their mutual hatred of awkward silences that they’d somehow started playing clapping games.

 

Archie was good at it. Kind of impressively good actually. Trying to keep up with Archie at Boom Slap Clap was akin to having to fight Neo from The Matrix in hand to hand karate combat.

 

“Ow.” Jughead said flatly as Archie slapped him just a little too hard, stinging his palms.

 

“Sorry, sorry.” Archie said, biting his lip to force away the smile on his face.

 

“I’m a delicate flower.” Jughead said seriously.

 

“Okay, this one’s called Tic Tac Toe it’s really fun-“ Archie continued, loosely grabbing Jughead’s wrist and guiding his hands again.

 

When Archie looked down at their hands, focusing on the movements, his eyelashes fell against his cheek, dark and long. Jughead remembered summers where Archie had run around in the sun without lotion and ended up with big rings of red sunburn over his cheekbones and the tip of his nose, the center of his forehead. He remembered Archie’s nose and fingers going red and nearly purple when it was winter and snowing, too, because he’d given Jughead his scarf.

 

“And then we go around, like this, and shake hands here-“ Archie was mumbling gently as much to himself as Jughead, as he entwined their fingers together, giving a firm shake.

 

“You sure this isn’t just a ploy to hold hands with me?”

 

“Of course it is.” Archie said as if it were obvious, raising an eyebrow at him, peering across their outstretched arms into his eyes so that he was looking through those eyelashes. “Try to keep up.”

 

Jughead smiled, going along with the movements a little quicker with incentive to focus now, still having to squint in concentration to get it right.

 

“Well, you can just ask next time. Skip whatever unique form of pageantry this is.”

 

Archie’s fingers slapped across Jughead’s, his hand quickly moving under their other set of clasped hands in time to meet Jughead’s hand again below, another quick slap, in perfect synchronization.

 

“Are you saying you’re not like, completely turned on by my mad skills right now?” Archie asked. The scar between his eyebrows crinkled in concentration.

 

“Oh, believe you me, I’ve had a boner since Ms.Mary Mack ten minutes ago.”

 

Archie grinned, never taking his eyes off their hands.

 

“Your hands _**ARE**_ pretty sweaty, dude.”

 

“That’s because this is the most physical activity I’ve done in months.”

 

A smirk ghosting across Archie’s lips was the only warning before he pulled some elaborate bullshit maneuver, fist bumping instead of a clap, using the back of his hand to rap Jughead’s knuckles, flipping over at lightning speed to slap his palm. A veritable coup of clapping game athleticism. If Tic Tac Toe clapping game was an olympic sport, the judges would be suspecting Archie of using performance enhancing drugs right about now.

 

“I think you cheated. But I don’t know or care enough about the rules and parameters of this game to dispute it.” Jughead sighed with resignation, picking up Archie’s arm, his fingers still clasped around his wrist, and guiding his hand to slap his own face gently. Archie scrunched up his nose but let his wrist go limp, allowing him do it.

 

“You can play off like losing just now didn’t hurt you deeply, Jug, but I saw the blaze of competitive fire in your eyes. It’s okay. I’ll let you win next time.”

 

“I would rather die than be given pity wins in a clapping game intended for children between the ages of 6 and 10.”

 

“How does it feel to have your _ **ass handed to you** _ in a game intended for children between the ages of 6 and 10?”

 

Jughead maneuvered Archie’s hand so his fingers were poking up his own nose.

 

“To be beaten at a children’s game means only that the victor was more child-like.” he sniffed.

 

“Says the person who’s trying to make me pick my own nose.” Archie said, his voice coming out nasally. Jughead couldn’t suppress a shudder of laughter.

 

“Okay, let’s do another one.” Archie said, extracting his fingers from his nose and shaking Jughead’s grip off.

 

“Hell no, booger hands.” Jughead deadpanned.

 

“Whose fault is that?”

 

“Uh, YOURS? Your hand did it.” he scoffed.

 

Archie grabbed the edge of Jughead’s flannel shirt and wiped the tips of his fingers on it before the high pitched scream of protest even had a change to escape his mouth.

 

“There- all clean.” Archie said with a bright as sunshine grin that stretched ear to ear.

 

“You’re a monster.”

 

“C’mon, we gotta practice.” Archie said, ignoring him, smile still in place, picking up Jughead’s wrists and loosely clapping his hands together for him.

 

“Practice?” Jughead sputtered “For what? The Patty Cake grand prix?”

 

“Yeah, exactly.”

 

“Can’t you get a better partner? Like Betty? Or… literally anyone else who has actual hand eye coordination skills?”

 

Archie looked into Jughead's eyes, expression dire.

“No, Jughead. There is only you.” Archie said seriously.

 

He broke his gaze and slapped Jughead's hands against his knees casually as he added: “…. Also, Betty slaps really hard when she plays these games. It’s actually a little frightening. Remember how I said we spent like our childhood years doing this everyday? My palms were red for like hours afterward every single time.”

 

“Well, my hands are really sweaty so that’s not much better.”

 

“No, I like your sweaty hands. It lubricates the motion. It’s what’s going to give us an advantage over the other competitors.”

 

“Is the competition very fierce at the Riverdale grand prix Patty Cake competition?”

 

“It’s the sporting event of the year right after football.”

 

“Don’t use my lack of athletic knowledge against me to try and convince me that this is real.”

 

Archie smiled at him again. He wasn’t trying to Patty Cake him, just holding their hands together loosely between them, knuckles dragging against the cool grass.

 

Jughead sighed.

 

“Did you really mean it just now when you said you liked my sweaty hands?”

 

“Yeah.” Archie said. “I love ‘em.”


End file.
